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The area around Ypres was the site of some of the British Army's most famous, and most studied, battles of the First World War. This series of books takes a different approach to the fighting, concentrating on a series of smaller scale incidents that took place in the area, ranging from the fate of individual soldiers up to the actions of particular battalions or regiments.
The ten incidents included in this volume in the series cover a fairly wide spread of topics, including the fate of two aviators and one promising war poet. They are spread out from 1914 to 1917, with the largest number of chapters (4 each) looking at the events of 1914 and 1917. The tone is inevitably rather melancholy, perhaps inevitably given the nature of these battles.
This book will be of great value to anyone planning to visit the Ypres battlefields, guiding them to the quiet areas where these incidents took place, and helping to explain what the visitor is seeing. They also give a good idea of the nature of the fighting as seen from the front line, looking at the reality hidden behind many 'minor' incidents in the fighting.
Chapters
1 - A London Irish Crucifix
2 - The Brown Road, Zillebeke
3 - The Birth of the Birdcage
4 - Fusilier Graves
5 - Aviators at Torreken Farm
6 - A Poet for Plugstreet
7 - Cheshires in the Wood
8 - Naming an Unnamed Wood
9 - The London Rifle Brigade at Plugstreet, 1914-1915
10 - Bravest of the Brave
11 - Interlude at Ypres
Author: Tony Spagnoly and Ted Smith
Edition: Paperback
Pages: 142
Publisher: Pen & Sword Military
Year: 2009